It’s easy to get lost on Locust Walk. We get caught up in everyday things. Fucking Starbucks took the holiday cheer away from their coffee cups. Finals are going to make you crawl under your coffee table and not come out until 2025. You have a 9am recitation. Then meetings on meetings on meetings. The stress gets to you and it pounds inside your head and, alas, we forget to see the beauty in the little things all around us. The extraordinary. The art that surrounds us every day. Literally. Because walls surround us. Because walls entrap us. In art. #duh
To assuage this tragic oversight, we’ve extensively reviewed works/walls of art around campus so you can stop and appreciate the roses in between your group project meetings.
#1: Bridge Cafe
At Bridge Cafe is a detail you probably haven’t noticed before. Look up and you’ll find a cityscape portrait of NYC. The symbolic landscape is as classic of an icon as it gets; the city that never sleeps, just like you don’t. But, in this city of concrete dreams also lies your dream job—probably. Attend those info sessions and shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land in an unpaid internship. Reminiscent of Charles Clyde Ebbets and his NYC photography.
#2: Fisher Fine Arts Bathroom
As Street walked into the bathroom at Fisher Fine Arts, we noted in one of the stalls the following: “Jewniversity of Pennsylgasia.” What might the artist have meant by this transfiguration of our hallowed institution’s name? Either way, the rapid, harsh brushstrokes (sharpie strokes?) showed us an intensity only seen in the paintings of Picasso during his blue period. Might this undiscovered artist be in his own blue period, incited by finals, thus making him write cryptic messages on the walls of bathrooms? The words of prophets are written in Fisher Fine Arts lavatory stalls.
#3: DRL Deck
DRL is really the Pan’s Labyrinth of Penn—you never know what may be hidden inside. Take a look at the brick walls that surround this abhorred building’s enclosed second floor deck. Perhaps they are protecting Penn’s greatest minds, or perhaps they are a reflection of Math 104’s prison–like torture. Rumor has it the bricks are in a fractal pattern.
#4: Williams Hall Quiet Study Lounge Sofas
Penn's collection of walls goes beyond our traditional conceptions of such—if you look carefully, you can find some really groundbreaking examples of the genius architects who built our hallowed halls walls. Take, for example, Williams Hall’s sofa walls, which offer a mixed-media piece that provides both comfort and aesthetics. The comfiness of the couches is perfectly juxtaposed with the rigidness of the walls. Ponder the complexities in texture while you sip your morning brew.
#5: Hill College House
On the outside, it looks like a jail. But on the inside, it looks like a...pre-school? Don’t let the bars on the windows fool you, Hill College House is full of bright, fun colors splashed across the hallways—we hear the residents even identify with their wall colors. Even more interesting? The colors are not consistent across floors! How’s that for a mindfuck?
